The first one is good, but the angle you shot at has put several areas at different points around the photo into focus, and that's bad. Distracting, to say the least.

Not much to say about the second one...it's very generic.

Click to expand...

Ok, well how do you focus only on the bee? Is there is some kind of specific setting I should use? I would assume that there is some way of isolating JUST the bee and not the flowers and not the background flowers as well? What type of angle is suggested to get the desired results?

What makes the second shot generic, could you please be a bit more specific..

I agree with the other comments, I think you can still work on the composition, angle, whatever... I'm not an expert so I cannot say much, but I feel it distracting and perhaps a little out of balance.

Ok, well how do you focus only on the bee? Is there is some kind of specific setting I should use? I would assume that there is some way of isolating JUST the bee and not the flowers and not the background flowers as well?

Click to expand...

If you're asking such basics as this, I'd suggest you go to your local library and pick up an instructional book. The short answer is a wider aperture.

What type of angle is suggested to get the desired results?

Click to expand...

Composition is something I try not to specifically critique anymore, but I will say that you should be shooting from an angle in which you aren't going to have objects center frame that are out of the DOF. In this case, the pedals of the flower nearest to the lens are out of focus. That's bad.

What makes the second shot generic, could you please be a bit more specific..

Click to expand...

In a sense they're both generic. There are a million people out there with macro lenses taking photos of insects on flowers...what makes these two stand out from the crowd?

Going by your strict measures, Max, hardly anyone at all is going to be able to take any wow-photos any more, since everyone's taking photos these days and there is only this range of things to shoot, especially for beginners or those who only just get to know their lenses.

I would assume this new lens is not one of the top-of-the-range-super-fast ones, so that f5.0 or f.4.0 are about the widest open it can go, is this so, ScOOb3rts?

That said, I might add that what disconcerts me personally about that first photo is that the eye of the bee seems to be just this slightly out of focus, though its body and wings are in focus. But it is true, given this narrow focus, part of the stem is very sharp, leaves next to it (protruding towards you, I know) are not, others (in line with the stem and your DOF) next to those are sharp again ... it is all a bit distracting.

Composition-wise, whether the second my be called generic or not (I still find insects-on-flower-pics nice to look at, whether I would buy them or not does not matter), the eye of the bee is in the very centre of your frame. I think you could still make this a bit more pleasing in pp-work by simply cropping it differently. Sharpness on the hairy body, wings and eye against a nicely blurred-out background looks good.

I'm not trying to discriminate against beginners. It's certainly possible to take "wow" photos with a narrow aperture. When has that ever not been the case? In fact, most macro lenses stop down to f32 because DOF is inherently shallow that close to a subject.

And what are you defending anyway? It's sort of like you're saying, "well, why do we need to take 'wow' photos anyway?" Well, possibly because you're a photographer.